My first dive into UK politics (besides protesting the closure of some local swimming pools) was on my return to Stourbridge, after 5 years living in America. I was drawn to the river Stour, which the town lends its name. On my first trips down the Stour in October 2005 I noticed some nasty looking rusty-coloured liquid coming out of a small but significant pipe, plus various foam formations where the river picked up pace. This is all besides the bicycles, car tires, and shopping trolleys, littering the river. Perhaps I was more sensitive to this, as I’d just been swimming in the feather river, Lake Tahoe, Pyramid lake, and dozens of other waters while in America. All crystal clear, inviting and beautiful.

The river stour is beautiful, don’t get me wrong, it just depends on the distance you are from it when making such an observation. You really have to get in there to know what’s going on. Analyze the water, run tests and perhaps try a small glass, see what happens. I’m kidding, do not drink a glass of Stour water, it’s mucky and you’ll be on the bog for a wik.

So here I was, back in town, after a remarkable American adventure. And I’m full of the spirit of protest and confidence, what can I do? I didn’t have a job, had just rented a room, and was at a loose end. I decided to begin a campaign to clean up the river Stour. I took a crappy video camera and got some footage of the river, together with some shots of Stourbridge, and edited it together with a tune I’d made using Reason software. (see blurred video below)

I made several phone calls to Severn Trent Water Authority, the Environment Agency and the local rivers and canals organizations, trying to find out who I need to talk to about the probable pollutants running into it, and the litter strewn through the relatively small section of river leading from Lye to Stourbridge (approx 2-3 miles of river).

Remember that in 2005 it was still a Blair Labour government, whom I was generally speaking, furious and angry at, for dragging us into the so called “War On Terror” with George Bush Jnr. However, in a moment of clarity, I decided to reach out to the local MP for Stourbridge, at that time, Linda Walthrow. I arranged a meeting and turned up at the church in Wollaston to put myself out there. I was unemployed at the time, claiming housing benefits and living rather frugally to say the least.       

I asked the MP to supply me with some equipment, waders and a hook, so I could become the official custodian of the river…if…I was to clean it up. I also turned her onto a white paper by a media theorist, writer, Douglas Rushkoff, the paper was titled Open Source Democracy. 

Open Source Democracy

I can’t help but wonder how different things would be if she would have read and understood and shared this document with all of her Labour party, at that point. The coming Digital Revolution, seemed to me to have been highly weaponized by the Conservatives and the right, taking the left off guard and leading to the 14 years of monstrosities and abominations in the UK. Partly, made possible by the digital media landscape and print media landscape domination. Russian interference? I digress.

I never got my waders of a hook, or a response by email. So I went ahead and started some projects anyway, some of which are documented in film and photographs. This project, started from the river Stour, has expanded and stayed with me on my subsequent travels to Europe. I don’t consider myself an environmentalist or even an activist, for me this was research into poetry and art. Where I pitch my tent. As much as I see the benefits and I admire professional card carry environmentalists, I did not wish to join any political party or movement. I wanted people to see me doing this for another reason, my own selfish reasons.

My campaign was a success, in as far as I got a print media story, and photograph in the local Newspaper, where I was misquoted but pretty fairly represented as saying words to the effect that, if the government isn’t going to do it, then I’ll do it, look. Trying to draw attention to the issue. Look at the state of the river the town is named after, littered literally with shopping trolleys. What better metaphor for our consumer technology boom of the mid to late noughties? Who cares about the river, fill that trolly up!

Jump forward nearly 20 years, and Britain’s rivers, waterways, lakes, seas and canals have been repeatedly, perhaps purposefully, polluted with waste sewage water. Meanwhile the major UK Water companies have been enjoying a financial bonanza, profiting from mismanagement, deregulation and the aroma of unaccountability. But no longer. This is coming to a dam. And we have a new chance to re-green and re-clean our waterways, with a different UK government. Once again, we pick up from where we left off, be the change. Turn the tide.

Feargal Sharkey has become the face and voice of the campaigns to save UK rivers, and lakes, and the sea, and hold those responsible for their decline, to account. I wish him every success, together with George Monbiot and everybody else pushing the good vibes.

https://www.cpre.org.uk/stories/feargal-sharkeys-mission-to-protect-englands-rivers-and-streams/